Leclerc leads in front of Red Bull drivers

The second training session had more clouds in the sky and the session took place in relatively cooler conditions compared to the first training session.

At the start of the session, McLaren driver Lando Norris entered the escape area at the end of the first sector, but managed to continue on the road without crashing his vehicle.

Shortly after, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel entered the getaway area at the first corner.

Among the highlights of the session were Mick Schumacher entering the escape area and continuing on the road without hitting anything, and Alex Albon crashing into the wall and breaking his right front suspension. On the fast corner before the starting straight, the Thai driver touched the wall on the right and his suspension broke, but he managed to pit.

In addition, Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc entered the escape area at different points of the track, entering the final 20 minutes. Perez entered the escape area on the track twice, while Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz were other names who got a taste of the escape area in the final moments.

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18

Photo: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Looking at the time table, after the first laps, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc caught a lap time of 1:43,806 and moved up to the first place on the time table.

This rating remained at the top until the last half hour and then the ratings improved further as the grid started to shift to soft tyres.

Leclerc further improved the fastest time with 1:43,224 and consolidated his lead.

There were some good times at different points on the track in the final episode, but no one was able to beat Leclerc’s rating.

As a result, Leclerc led the first session and started the weekend strong.

The Red Bull drivers struggled to make clean laps in the second session. Perez was second behind by 0.248 seconds after struggling more than in the first session, while team-mate Max Verstappen came on the track a little later due to rear wing problems and had to slow down on his fastest lap due to Perez’s yellow flags.

He then took another lap, where he finished third, 0.356 seconds behind Leclerc.

The surprise of the session was undoubtedly Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard was fourth on his fastest lap, 0.918 seconds behind Leclerc, and was the best of the rest in the second as well as the first session.

Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522

Photo: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

Carlos Sainz finished the session fifth, one second behind, but it wasn’t a surprise as he had to abandon his lap on the softest tyre. The Spanish driver recorded his fastest lap with medium dough.

In the session where AlphaTauri looked strong, Pierre Gasly was sixth with 1.091 seconds, while teammate Yuki Tsunoda was eighth behind 0.3 seconds.

It was not a very good session for Mercedes drivers. George Russell was seventh, 0.019 seconds ahead of Tsunoda in the session, where he seemed more comfortable than teammate Lewis Hamilton, while seven-time world champion Hamilton finished 12th, 0.3 seconds behind.

Esteban Ocon struggled to keep up with his teammate Alonso and finished 0.4 seconds behind the Spaniard. McLaren driver Lando Norris completed the top ten. But the British pilot was 1.5 seconds behind the leader.

Aston Martin appeared closer to the front in the second session, finishing 11th, 0.010 seconds behind Norris. His teammate Lance Stroll was 13th.

At McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo was again out of the top ten and finished 14th, 1.8 seconds behind. Valtteri Bottas was 15th on the day Alfa Romeo wasn’t looking too well, Zhou Guanyu was 16th, Kevin Magnussen was 17th and Alex Albon was 18th.